cloud

[undread]

Comments

week 0; sometime probably saturday though

[undread]

[let's say they're at the barn, maybe? she's poking her head in and taking a look. once again, talking to herself.]

Maybe we'll find a little friend for you in here. What would you think about that?

[residentmerc]

[ he walks in just as she says that, and he kind of pauses... ]

You talking to me?

[ or herself again, which, honestly both options are bad. neither of them should get little friends. ]

[undread]

Don't mind him, Pâté. He just loves to snoop.

[she's turning around and holding out a little dead rat! it has a fat, dead little body, a bird skull sewn on where its head should be, and bony wigs. she starts moving his little arms to make him wave.]

Say hi!

[residentmerc]

[ STARING........... does she know... the rat... is dead... ]

............ Is that who you were talking to yesterday?

[undread]

[laudna moves the rat to shake his head no. and then she starts speaking in a deep exaggerated voice with an aggressive cockney accent, only barely moving her lips.]

No way. I was trapped in a little box yesterday, I was. Couldn't get back to Laudna no matter what I did. She's a smart one, she'd know better than to talk to me when I weren't even there.

[residentmerc]

[ oh he gets it now. she is a card game player. everything has been explained ]

... Right. [ Dubious ] So guess the rat was in your... stuff?

[undread]

Oi! I'm no rat, I'm a familiar! Call me a rat one more time.

[she pats the little rat on his head.]

Oh, settle down, Pâté, he didn't mean anything by it. Yes, he was in the box with my clothing, the silly. He must have crawled in there because he was lonely and missed me.

[residentmerc]

[ the face he makes says "that's definitely a dead rat", but he doesn't think pointing it out will amount to... anything. ]

A familiar? He help you fight?

[ this is the only kind of magic familiar he knows... combat... ]

[undread]

Um. A little... well, he is a spell I can cast. But he is a bit better at sneaking around and spying than combat.

[anyway, at this point, she sets the dead rat down, and it's bony wings start to flutter and somehow it begins to fly around.]

[residentmerc]

[




this might as well happen but he still looks baffled ]

... He's... pretty mobile.

[undread]

Oh, yes. He was dead, but I brought him to life! But he's feeling shy today and doesn't want to speak on his own.

[residentmerc]

... He normally speaks, too?

[ he can't JUDGE he has a ROBOT CAT in his party, but ALSO ]

[undread]

Yes! Though everything he says is exactly what I'm having him say, as his life and animation is only a function of my magic.

[residentmerc]

... Doesn't that mean it's just stuff you want to say?

[undread]

I want him to be the Pâté I imagined, come to life. There's a slight difference there, I think.

[residentmerc]

So... he acts how you think he should if he had his own personality?

[undread]

Yes, something like that. I'm not entirely sure how the magic works. It's best not to examine these things too closely

[residentmerc]

... Not like I know that much about magic.

[ he USES it, but this is clearly very different from. the magic he knows. so moving on; ]

That other one still not responding, then?

[undread]

D? No. She's gone silent, annoyingly.

[she scowls at that, tugging a little on her hair.]

You see, she doesn't exist separately from me. Her soul is trapped in my body. So there's hardly anywhere she could go.

[residentmerc]

[ he is not as weirded out about souls being trapped in bodies as he could be, which is to say, he kind of takes it in stride, for Reasons ]

So she's still with you and she's either choosing not to talk, or this place found a way to silence her.

[undread]

Exactly. But knowing her, it's more likely the former.

[but it's not that hard to tell she's very worried about the idea that it could be the latter.]

[residentmerc]

... Well, if it isn't, it's probably temporary. No way they can keep us here that long.

[ eight weeks later... ]

[undread]

Surely not. Though we may need to find out own way out.

[residentmerc]

There's no may. No one who's gone through this much trouble to get us here in the first place would let us go that easily.

[undread]

Assuming it was intentional, and not some sort of... convergence of leylines.